Page 319 - Records of Bahrain (7) (ii)_Neat

Economic and financial affairs 709
m

t • '
(11 OH) y PJiPRRT
&e8£?±5hJHqd_q5B.

SJUULJl&JC
• BA\io\ J)**-

Our nttoinptG to produce on Economic Survey of Dahrain
have failed because of the lack of statistical information.
Such information a6 we have obtained rcvcalG a gloomy
picture of the island1o economy.
2. Unless there is an vncxpccted oil diGeovery off-shore
oil production will decline in about ten ye arc and end in
possibly twenty. Natural gas may loot a little longer.
Even the future of the refinery, which requires mainly Saudi

Arabian oil, will be prejudiced as the island's water supply
runG out towardb the cldoe of the century.
I
3. The pearl industry haa failed to compete with cultured
poarlG. Pishing has been neglected and now seemingly lost-
out to Kuwait. Agriculture ic declining, and no attempt is
being made to exploit tie last few decades of its water
supply.
4. Decause of the fnertia of the Government and obtusoness
of the Ruler, Dahrain is no longer the centre of the Gulf's
l i
entrepot trade and io steadily losing commerce to Dammam
and Dubai. Her only hope ic to exploit her new port wisely;

but even this is beyond the Ruler* o ability to organise.
5. While prosperity still lasts no attempt is made to
build up the State's reserves.
6, Meanwhile Dahrain's exceptionally young population
grows by y/o a year; and their main hope for the future
incroaaingly seems to lio on the Arabian mainland.
7, It is in our interests to press tho Ruler to mend his

oconomic fences and encourage emigration so that Dahrain
can eventually piny an active and valuable part in tire future
Arabia.
SECRET